Students over 50 will be hitting college campuses this year at record rates. What does that mean for colleges and what does that mean for the students themselves?
For colleges, there will need to be resources and plans for these experienced students going back to school for training or their undergraduate degree. Professors and adjuncts will need to be skilled at drawing out their life experiences during class as those students sit next to 18-year-olds have yet to risk, to fail and to experience many of life’s lessons. They will need basic learning skills, though data shows they have the motivation in spades that many 18-year-olds lack.
So, traditional-aged students can greatly gain from having classmates over fifty as long as they extend themselves to these students. If they do engage them–through sitting next to them in class, asking questions, and studying with them in study groups outside of class–they will get a world of knowledge which they need right now, but don’t have first-hand.
ARTICLE:
By ERIC HOOVER
Baby boomers once redefined youth—and now they are redefining retirement.
Health-care advances and increasing life spans have allowed adults who are 50 and older to stay in the work force longer than their parents did. A tough economy means that many older Americans must continue working out of necessity, if not by choice. And many baby boomers who leave the work force seek opportunities to stay active and engaged in their communities.
Those circumstances will have major implications for community colleges, according to experts here at the annual convention of the American Association of Community Colleges. On Sunday, Mary Sue Vickers, director of the association’s Plus 50 Initiative, told her colleagues that community colleges must do more to engage older students and prepare them for jobs.
“Society’s ideas about aging have not kept pace with reality or with how baby boomers see themselves,” Ms. Vickers said. Many middle-aged Americans, she noted, may work part time after retiring, while others will continue “cycling in and out of periods of work and leisure.”
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I believe the later in life you attend school the better minded you are to take in the experience. I have been in groups with students whom are older and they bring a whole different light to the process and I completely take in what they say, for the most important reason is because they have the experience! They also are more brave than the 18 year olds because they are taking the leap to go back to school and learn among those that are completely younger than them and still have the courage to be amongst the younger crowds!
My grandpa is also a Baby Boomer and we love him a lot.”*`
my grandfather is also a baby boomer and he is also a war veteran:~”
my grandfather is a baby boomer and i am quite proud of his longevity all these years`’.